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Anime First Impressions

Witchblade – Anime First Impressions

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Witchblade – I’d heard the name before, and it turns out that the origin of this anime is with an American comic book (er… sorry, “visual novel”). I’d put off watching this one because I figured it’d be like one of those wannabe anime (Teen Titans), except in reverse. Putting my snobbery aside, I give you my first impressions of the Witchblade anime:

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Witchblade – I’d heard the name before, and it turns out that the origin of this anime is with an American comic book (er… sorry, “graphic novel”). I’d put off watching this one because I figured it’d be like one of those wannabe anime (Teen Titans), except in reverse. Putting my snobbery aside, I give you my first impressions of the Witchblade anime:

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I really don’t know anything about the American com.. graphic novel, so the plot was all new to me. I won’t be able to tell you if the anime is totally different from the comic or anything like that.

In the first episode, the titular (and I do mean titular) heroine Masane Amou is traveling with her too cute daughter Rihoko. The child services people finally catch up to her and take Rihoko away! I honestly think that the daughter is really the mother in the relationship, and that Rihoko should be accountable for the horrendous living conditions of her mom, but o’well.

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While in jail for the high speed car chase (“To get my daughter back, I’ll smash into the car she’s in!”), some crazy licking guy turns into a robot and attacks Masane. Then she does her magical girl transformation and uses her blade to his organic robot butt. Witchblade? That blade! So yeah, this anime makes about 0 sense right now.

We’re given a teaser of what Witchblade can do, and I’m looking forward to more, but I can honestly say that if this anime turned into a slice of life with Rihoko, I’d be more than happy. She’s soo dern cute!

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The character designs are surprisingly good. The designers did a good job of translating the designs to anime. You’ve got the totally stacked (notice the focal point of that screencap) Masane, the uber-kawaii Rihoko (who sorta reminds me of a young Tenma from School Rumble), the spunky undercover guy Yuusuke Tozawa, no to mention the cool and bladey Witchblade!

The animation is also top notch. I have a feeling that Gonzo took some of their animation budget from Glass no Kantai and put it into Witchblade. I’m looking forward to some more vector-fighting action.

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I didn’t really like the OP when I first heard it, but it’s sorta growing on me. It has some fun time signature changes, which is always a plus. The ED is nice and mellow. I dunno if it fits that well with the anime itself, but those smooth vocals make it awesome anyway. It’s one of the better EDs of the season.

Download the OP: “XTC” by Psychic Lover
Download the ED: “Ashita no Te” by Mamiko Noto

So far, the Witchblade anime has far exceeded my expectations (mainly because they were so low to begin with). Hopefully Bakakozou and Conclave keep subbing this. I demand more Rihoko!

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13 replies on “Witchblade – Anime First Impressions”

Not to nitpick, but isn’t “visual novel” usually used in reference to games? “Graphic novel” is probably the term you’re looking for.

I enjoyed the first episode of Witchblade, but I haven’t really bothered to see more. There are so many shows to keep up with this season..

Dagger – You’re absolutely right. I dunno why I didn’t catch that while I was re-reading… Thanks for the heads up!

I’ve actually been a big Witchblade fan for years. It’s been a pretty success as a “graphic novel” and was also a TV Series briefly. It’s basically about a mysterious organism called the Witchblade that develops a symbiotic relationship with the strongest woman in a generation. The Witchblade can’t be worn by a man, and lots of famous women supposedly wielded the witchblade– Joan of Arc, for instance. Anyway even though the main American series follows a detective named Sara Pezzini, the “theme” of Witchblade has been to tell the stories of different Witchblade weilders. I know a lot of Japanese writers/artists have worked on the American witchblade series, but I don’t know if any of them have anything to do with this one. Either way, as so far, the first episode is true to the witchblade story on average, if not the american one in particular. So far I think it shows promise.
(Sorry for the long winded response, but when you’re into a comic or series, you just have to tell everyone about it. :P)

Ever since I’ve heard of the Witchblade anime, I’ve come to 2 questions…

1) Will they include the Darkness in the storyline? (The stories of the Witchblade and the Darkness are intertwined.)

2) And if so, is there a Darkness series under works?

Hello.

Well it’s this much time later, and there are only 4 eps of this show to be found on torrent. That I have found anyway.

It seems that it was licensed or picked up as the case may be by someone who in time will show it in the US.

I was going to ask if anyone knew of anyone was as still fan subbing, but I think that I’m just looking for something that isn’t there.

As for what I think of this anime. It’s good. It doesn’t follow the plot of the US show at all, and I loved that show, but I can live with the new way they were going with this one. I’ve just about never read the graphic novel, so I can’t comment on it.

Love your snap shows of the first ep. You almost don’t need to watch the first ep, it’s just about all there in pictures.

I’m going to look around some more. See ya.

I am also looking for new episodes in fan subs, I have seen the first 4 and need more now. I hope someone continues to sub this show it a great show.

look at animeyume they are updating the torrents for witch blade but it seems that only one group is working on it and they are taking some time i really enjoyed this anime its cool

Ive seen all the fansubs, and I have to say its a wonderful anime. It balances the supernatural fighting and character interaction + development.

If only the DVD could come out in Europe some day, its going straight to my collection…

Just watched the Funimation volume one version and I gotta say – it’s a little pervy. Overall, I think the story is pretty good, but the fight scenes and Witchblade transformations are reeeeaaaallllyyy suggestive, LOL.

I agree with you though – the character designs are great (mostly) and the quality is top-notch (not to be confused with ‘top-cow’).

@david: If you’re watching the DVD version, they’ve “uncensored” the TV anime version, which I wasn’t too wild about. You might want to look up the original comic book covers — “suggestive” puts it lightly.

Um… Not that I’m complaining! 😀

I’ve been reading Witchblade since it first came out. Since the anime takes place in the 22nd century, I’m interested to see if Sara Pezzini is mentioned or if the Darkness will have any involvement.

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